This is not an economy returning to recession. Rather it is an economy seeking its natural level which is not at a level pumped up by unsustainable consumption and debt. The transition will be hard and those with most will neeed to be generous to those with least. But to deny this transition in the old pursuit of what we call “growth” is foolhardy and damaging.

We need: less borrowing and more saving; less foreign travel and more local supply of food; a lowering of the highest levels of consumption and a raising of the lowest.